Strachey Takes on Gay Media and Pot – a Book Review

Dick Lipez is an RPCV Ethiopia, former PC staff, longtime journalist, a contributor to our website, and on top of most things in pop and current culture. He has just published his thirteenth mystery in his Don Strachey series, The Last Thing I Saw. He started the series 31 years ago. His protagonist Strachey is an Albany, NY private eye in a longtime relationship with Timothy Callahan, who had been in the Peace Corps in India prior to their relationship. Peace Corps experience, values, insights crop up in almost all the books. Timmy always has good advice to offer and incisive questions to ask. He’s that voice way back in Strachey’s head whispering in his ear.

Lipez, writing as Richard Stevenson, actually Dick’s first and second names, has had his finger on the critical issues facing his gay brothers and sisters throughout those 31 years. His protagonist Strachey has dealt with it all: AIDS, outing, curing homosexuality hustles, political corruption, gay marriage, gay assimilation, the lures of Southeast Asia, and all sorts of homophobia. Private eye Strachey has taken all of it on.

This time around, things become increasingly complex. Strachey has been tasked to find a missing Eddie Wenske, a popular investigative reporter and memoir author. Wenske has been working on an expose of a predatory gay media corporation. Strachey moves around Boston and New York, and finally ends up in Northern California. The two big issues in this latest book in the series is the consolidation of power in the gay media, and as a sidelight, the question of marijuana growth and distribution in a political and social environment that increasingly calls for the legalization of personal use. And in this case, the seemingly unrelated meet head on.

What’s always been great about Lipez’s (Stevenson’s) Strachey series has been his insight into recent and current political and cultural issues. And over those 31years since his first, Death Trick, those of us who been around and reasonably alert have, like Strachey, seen our progress and the negative reactions to that progress. What our author explores in his most recent chapter in Strachey’s life is a key issue. As our LGBT sisters and brothers have gained rights, political and cultural power, so have those economic forces, who want to tap our wallets, moved in for the kill. A key question: “When does targeted marketing morph into economic exploitation?” Is this surprising when issues of economic consolidation, monopoly, and economic exploitation are increasing issue throughout our society?

When compared to many of the blockbuster authors of the mystery, thriller genre, private eye Strachey sees fewer deaths, and much less overt violence. Satire, often tongue in check, is an important tool of our author. And another great thing, gay guys are not always the good guys; straight people are not always the enemy. Straight women and lesbians often come out well.

Great color, great insight, highlighting current LGBT concerns, and very good writing, is what you get with a Strachey book. And it moves fast. I you haven’t followed Strachey, now’s the time. Lipez’s (Stevenson’s) current publisher, MLR Press, has reissued the entire series in paperback. You can order the most recent or any of the others on Amazon. It’s available September 22, 2012.

You can buy the The Last Thing I Saw on Amazon. Visit the Donald Strachey Mysteries homepage.

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About LGBT RPCVWe are an organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and others who are Peace Corps volunteer alumni, current volunteers, former and current staff members and friends. Founded in Washington D.C. in 1991, we have several hundred members throughout the country and around the world who have served in Peace Corps since its beginning in 1961. We're made up of a national steering committee, together with regional chapters. We are an active affiliate member of the National Peace Corps Association.